Privacy and Cookies

Cookie usage on escardio.org

Most websites you visit will use cookies in order to improve your user experience by enabling that website to ‘remember’ you, either for the duration of your visit (using a ‘session cookie’) or for repeat visits (using a ‘persistent cookie’).

Cookies do lots of different jobs, like letting you navigate between pages efficiently, storing your preferences, and generally improving your experience of a website. Cookies make the interaction between you and the website faster and easier. If a website doesn’t use cookies, it will think you are a new visitor every time you move to a new page on the site – for example, when you enter your login details and move to another page it won’t recognise you and it won’t be able to keep you logged in.

Types of cookies

Cookies may be set by the website you are visiting (‘first party cookies’) or they may be set by other websites who run content on the page you are viewing (‘third party cookies’). When you use our website, services, applications, messaging and tools, the ESC or authorised service providers may collect information such as your IP address, geographical location, referral source, length of visit and pages viewed. We use this information to operate and improve your experience on our websites.

First party cookies

First party cookies are set by the website you are visiting and they can only be read by that site. The ESC Website uses the following first party cookies:

Application session management: in order to ensure proper delivery of our content, we work on several servers, this cookie allows you to stay on the proper server to access the latest information.

Cookie policy: this is a legal requirement to ensure you read and accept this cookie policy. This cookie is the only persistent one we place on your browser. It lasts 1 year, ie each year (or before if you clear your cookies) you will need to indicate again that you agree with this policy.

My ESC and the Membership Portal: this ensures that once you are logged in, you stay logged in until you decide to logout. This gives you the opportunity to proceed with your transaction (membership, buying a product, etc)

SSO - Authentification service: this ensures that you stay logged in when going from the My ESC section to the main ESC website and vice versa. This is what allows you to login and then come back to the website to view restricted content.

Third party cookies

Third party cookies are set by a different organisation to the owner of the website you are visiting. For example, the website might use a third party analytics company who will set their own cookie to perform this service. The website you are visiting may also contain content embedded from, for example YouTube or twitter, and these sites may set their own cookies. The ESC Website uses the following third party cookies:

Add event to calendar: when you add an event to your calendar using our 'add to calendar' feature, the tool we put at your disposition to do so records this action so we can know that it is used.

Adobe Analytics: this is used to allow us to identify the content that is most visited, how that content is visited, what the user journey is, etc. The data from this tool allows us to continuously improve your user journey and experience on our website.

Exact Target: this allows us to, if you visit our website through a link in an email we have sent you, follow your user journey to see if you indeed take an action or simply visit for information.

Google Analytics: this is used to allow us to identify the content that is most visited, how that content is visited, what the user journey is, etc. The data from this tool allows us to continuously improve your user journey and experience on our website.

Social Sharing: this allows us to know if you shared our content on social media via the share buttons you find on the left of the site. It does not allow us to in any way identify you or find your social media account but it tells us how many users shared each page.

Website monitoring: this allows us to track how the website is performing for you (eg page loading times) and gives us these indications by geo-localisation so that, if you are in a country where our website runs slower, we can be informed and take actions to improve this.

YouTube: this ensures that on pages where you can view a YouTube video, the view you perform is accounted for in the total number of views of that video.

Session cookies

Session Cookies are stored only temporarily during a browsing session and are deleted from the user’s device when the browser is closed.

Persistent cookies

This type of cookie is saved on your computer for a fixed period (usually a year or longer) and is not deleted when the browser is closed. Persistent cookies are used where we need to know who you are for more than one browsing session.

What is in a cookie?

A cookie is a simple text file that is stored on your computer or mobile device by a website’s server and only that server will be able to retrieve or read the contents of that cookie. Each cookie is unique to your web browser. It will contain some anonymous information such as a unique identifier and the site name and some digits and numbers. It allows a website to remember things like your preferences or what’s in your shopping basket.

What to do if you don’t want cookies to be set

Some people find the idea of a website storing information on their computer or mobile device a bit intrusive, particularly when this information is stored and used by a third party without them knowing. Although this is generally quite harmless you may not, for example, want to see content that has been targeted to your interests. If you prefer, it is possible to block some or all cookies, or even to delete cookies that have already been set; but you need to be aware that you might lose some functions of that website.

How can I control cookies?

If you don’t want to receive cookies, you can modify your browser so that it notifies you when cookies are sent to it or you can refuse cookies altogether. You can also delete cookies that have already been set.

If you wish to restrict or block web browser cookies which are set on your device then you can do this through your browser settings; the Help function within your browser should tell you how. Alternatively, you may wish to visit www.aboutcookies.org, which contains comprehensive information on how to do this on a wide variety of desktop browsers.

Our website does work without cookies, but you will lose some features and functionality if you choose to disable cookies. In particular, if you do choose to disable cookies, you will not be able to enjoy the full range of online services available through the My ESC area or any of the restricted content.